New Moon Movie News

LOS ANGELES — Vampires continued to howl as The Twilight Saga: New Moon topped the box office for the second week in a row.

The Summit Entertainment sequel raked in $42.5 million over the holiday weekend, according to studio estimates released Sunday. While the total marked a steep decline from last weekend's record-breaking debut, it still managed to raise the movie's worldwide gross to a whopping $473.7 million.

Sandra Bullock's The Blind Side nearly toppled the vampire flick for the top spot. The football film rang up sales of $40.1 million to finish a close second.

The action film 2012, which stars John Cusack and Amanda Peet, finished third with $18 million in sales, while two new Disney films, Old Dogs ($16.8 million) and A Christmas Carol ($16 million), rounded out the weekend top five.

LOS ANGELES — Vampires continued to howl as The Twilight Saga: New Moon topped the box office for the second week in a row.

The Summit Entertainment sequel raked in $42.5 million over the holiday weekend, according to studio estimates released Sunday. While the total marked a steep decline from last weekend's record-breaking debut, it still managed to raise the movie's worldwide gross to a whopping $473.7 million.

Sandra Bullock's The Blind Side nearly toppled the vampire flick for the top spot. The football film rang up sales of $40.1 million to finish a close second.

The action film 2012, which stars John Cusack and Amanda Peet, finished third with $18 million in sales, while two new Disney films, Old Dogs ($16.8 million) and A Christmas Carol ($16 million), rounded out the weekend top five.

HOLLYWOOD, Calif. — While many critics panned The Twilight Saga: New Moon, director Chris Weitz and company got the last laugh as the film's opening-day weekend placed third on the all-time domestic chart behind only 2008's The Dark Knight and 2007's Spider-Man 3.

LOS ANGELES — Taylor Lautner won't confirm if he's dating Taylor Swift, but he is willing to admit there's some magic between the two.

"We got along great," the 17-year-old actor says of his Valentine's Day co-star in the December issue of Rolling Stone. "We instantly clicked. And she's — she's an amazing girl. Aside from being beautiful, she's extremely funny, charismatic and fun to be around, so we definitely get along. We're close."

The New Moon star has evolved into one of Hollywood's biggest hunks, but he says his professional career presented some challenges early on.

"I was never extremely confident," the Michigan native tells the mag. "Because I was an actor, when I was in school there was a little bullying going on. Not physical bullying but people making fun of what I do ... I just had to tell myself I can't let this get to me. This is what love to do. And I'm going to continue to do it."

When it comes to the franchise that launched him to stardom, Lautner admits that he never could have predicted what was in store for him.

"Nobody knew what Twilight was going to be," he says. "Nobody. We thought we were making it just for passionate fans of the book. People just kept telling Us, 'Oh, yeah, the movie is going to do so good.' And we were like, 'All right, whatever. We'll see.' But when the movie came out, I was just blown away. That's when I realized, 'Boy, what am I getting myself into?'"

While thankful for what's transpired, Lautner remains modest with his success.

"This could have happened to anybody who played Jacob," he says. "I was just lucky enough to be the one that has that opportunity. I'm so grateful. It's Twilight. It's not me personally."

HOLLYWOOD, Calif. — In the second installment of Stephenie Meyer’s phenomenally successful Twilight series, the romance between mortal and vampire soars to a new level as Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) delves deeper into the mysteries of the supernatural world she yearns to become part of—only to find herself in greater peril than ever before.

LOS ANGELES — Robert Pattinson says ripping his shirt off for New Moon during a scene filmed in Italy was more than awkward to say the least.

"I felt pretty goofy stepping out into the sunlight in front of 2,000 people in a town square, ripping my clothes off," the 23-year-old actor tells Parade magazine. "I was essentially doing a striptease."

While going shirtless in public was a tad bit embarrassing, Pattinson says it was worth it considering so many Twilighters had descended into the area to be part of the film.

"It was one of the moments where I've really felt closest to people's emotional attachment to Edward," he says. "There were so many extras in that scene who were Twilight fans who had flown in just to be a part of it. It was a moment where I've felt the whole weight of anticipation, and I guess responsibility as well, of being Edward, for all the people who were kind of so obsessed with the stories. It was quite uplifting and it was also very nerve-wracking."

Pattinson says stripping down for the film was also a challenge considering the body transformation co-star Taylor Lautner underwent for the sequel.

"I didn't see Taylor until just a little bit before we started shooting," Pattinson says. "I had the same reaction as everybody else. It's like, 'Jeez, now I have to go to the gym.' Looking at Taylor's martial arts videos from when he was nine, I wouldn't really want to fight him for real unless maybe I had some kind of weapon. But in the story as it's written, I think it's actually a fact that Edward would win over Jacob. So I guess I can hold onto that for my ego."